Mug of tea anyone?

For some time now I have been collecting hand thrown pottery mugs. No two are alike. My latest additions are the four in the centre of this picture. The pale ones are a beautiful chalky white with a mix of other tones. They are from Woburn Pottery. Most are marked but some only with abstract symbols. I've tried to look up where they are from on the internet but I guess there are an awful lot of small potteries.

When we visit new places in the UK we often call in at potteries but whilst I admire the time and skill and the various processes that go into making a hand thrown mug I'm always a little reluctant to spend a tenner on a mug that will no doubt get chipped or dropped. Some of my charity shop finds have ended up smashed to smithereens.

I favour the more matt glazes but the glossy ones are often too nice to leave behind. One of my favourites (below) has a rather dark and gloomy tree scene but it's a great shape and a good size, it was also the most I've ever paid for one, a whopping £2.

I'm not sticking to certain colours either, though all the more retro designs are in shades of brown, which is possibly why so many end up in charity shops. There is so much choice in terms of colour and pattern these days.

Sometimes the small ones are shoved to the back of a shelf and marked 50p., like this latest one, not exactly a hand thrown mug but sweet nonetheless... It feels familiar somehow. It's from the range 'Granville' by T G Green which is great because it reminds me of David Jason in Open All Hours. It's only espresso size.

This is a close up of my latest find, one of four from Woburn Pottery. It's got a nice generous handle. You can tell when they are hand thrown by the swirls in the bottom of the cup and by the clay they are made from.

It's quite likely that I'm slightly odd to post about my mug collection. I figure that it's a harmless thing to collect because they do actually get used, and every day too. My second largest collection is probably jeans. I do like jeans. There won't be any posts about jeans. I promise.

P.S. The lung model got top marks! Woohoo!